Today, Tim Kaine will unveil his last budget as Governor of Virginia, and as Jeff Schapiro said recently, this will be a "political document" like all other budgets before it. Of course, as Schapiro pointed out, Kaine will "deny this with that smiley-faced earnestness he fine-tuned as a plaintiff's lawyer." Oh wait, he already has! :)Kaine, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Thursday that the budget has not been "shaded one way or the other" based on political calculations.Now, we may be a lot of things here at Blue Virginia, but we do pride ourselves on not being completely naive. So...what can I say, if you believe that there's absolutely no politics involved in the budget being presented today by the head of the Democratic National Committee, I've got some global warming denier pamphlets to sell you, real cheap. Heh.
"The budget that I'm going to announce tomorrow is exactly the same budget that I would have announced if [Democrat] Creigh [Deeds] was going to be governor," Kaine said.
Away from the politics, which don't exist (suuuuuuuuuure), Kaine says that "there's not going to be a lot of good" in his final budget, that he has "nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat...an ordeal of the most grievous kind...many, many months of struggle and suffering." Oh wait, the latter part of that quote (after "there's not going to be a lot of good") was actually by Winston Churchill, but it feels appropriate in the context of this budget as well. According to Tim Kaine, we're talking about yet more "painful cuts," even after having lopped $7 billion out of Virginia's budget since 2007. At this point, we're really getting to the point where we're cutting into muscle and bone as opposed to fat. Anyway, we'll find out the details this morning, but it's almost certainly not going to be a pretty picture. I only hope that this is not only cuts, but instead is a balanced mix of reduced spending and increased revenues. Of course, the Republicans will probably reject any new revenues (aka, "taxes") and favor 100% cuts to teachers, etc., but that's why they're Republicans and we're Democrats. If there's "politics" anywhere in this budget document, that's where it should be, in the fundamental difference in the two party's political philosophies regarding the role of government.
With regard to Tim Kaine's budget supposedly being the exact same as it would have been if Creigh Deeds was governor-elect instead of Bob McDonnell, I can only say that I'm glad I wasn't drinking any milk when I read that 'cuz I hate when it comes out my nose. :) For starters, if Creigh Deeds had been elected governor, it's likely that Democrats would have gained seats in the House of Delegates, and that the entire political and economic climate would be different than it is now.
Other than that, something tells me that Kaine would have consulted at least a wee bit with a Governor-elect Deeds in crafting the budget that would have landed on Creigh's "table" (god, I'm so sick of that metaphor). But what do I know, I'm just a netroots activist and blogger, not a "regular grownup Democrat," at least according to Chris Matthews, and despite the fact that I vote in every election, donate money to Democrats, volunteer for Democrats, work for Democratic candidates and institutions (Jim Webb, Judy Feder, South Dakota Democratic Party, Jon Bowerbank...), etc. But that's the subject for another post. Now, back to the horrible budget news. Ugh.
